In a dizzyingly shallow presentation, Interim Chancellor proposes cuts to 70% of College with no analysis.

City College is San Francisco’s largest and most accessible site for workforce training and higher ed degrees. That’s why the College’s current Interim Chancellor’s lack of leadership is such a problem for our city.

Last night, at our College Board’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Interim Chancellor Bailey showed an alarming absence of depth in discussing our college’s long-term finances.

• Bailey signaled the need for significant cuts to 70% of City College programs and classes, particularly targeting the college’s diversity and language classes (largely ‘single section’), without providing the basic cost/benefit financial analysis that one would expect of any chief executive.
• Why is Bailey targeting Chinese language and ethnic studies classes for cuts? Why single sections? How much do they cost? How much revenue do they generate? What is the cost/benefit analysis justifying these decisions? Bailey was unable to provide basic financial answers.
• Amazingly, Bailey didn’t even mention why the next academic year is so crucial to CCSF’s long term finances–it’s the final year for City College to expedite our transition out of our current revenue freeze.

This is a moment that calls for serious leadership, not platitudes and empty shows. City College is running budget surpluses, with reserves over $31 million, while, yes, facing the future threat of frozen revenue. The answer is sound financial stewardship, including targeted investments in gateway classes. An example: this semester, 193 students were locked out of Chemistry 32, a vital pipeline to healthcare programs from Nursing to Radiology. But Bailey’s current plan will only perpetuate the crisis and further undermine our finances and mission in the process. Students like Ruth Agüero deserve better.

Any day now we expect CCSF’s College Board to choose a new permanent Chancellor, and we urge them to choose the Chancellor our community needs: someone who will engage constituents, articulate a vision, and effectively manage our resources in pursuit of that robust vision. We need results, not spin.